Andy Murray took a huge step forward in his young tennis career, answering his critics and squashing the scepticism of some negative British tennis press to record his first win at an elite masters event.

The British number one recorded an outstanding victory over the world number 3 Novak Djokovic in 2 very closely fought sets winning 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) in two hours and 23 minutes.

It was only two months ago that many British tennis Journalists questioned whether Andy Murray could win at the top level – rather than see the potential and focus on his successes, they criticised his on court manner, his coaching choice and his autobiography.

Today he answered them in fine style. Two weeks ago Roger Federer was world number 1 and Andy Murray had never beaten Novak Djokovic and the young Serb had inflicted heavy defeats on Murray in their last 3 meetings. Though times are a changing in the tennis world, roll on two weeks and Roger Federer’s reign at number 1 is coming to an end and Novak Djokovic has just lost twice to Andy Murray.

The scot started the match the better and looked the most likely to break first. He got carved out his first chance in game five, but was not able to convert and again in the 7th game forcing another chance, though again Djokovicclosed the door on Murray. Throughout this period Murray was holding his own serve with ease and would have been disappointed not secure the break. Not break of serve would mean a tie break was needed to separate the two – In many a similar match, the best player in the set doesn’t always win the set but this was not the case today. Murray remained ice cool, breaking immediately in the tie break and continuing is high level of service. Murray raced in a 5-1 lead at the changeover and soon wrapped up the set.

Djokovic, the current world number 3 and Australian Open champion rallied in the second set and managed to secure the first break of the match, to go up 2-1. But as we have seen Murray do on a few occasions in the last two weeks, the Scot broke back immediately. Andy turned up the heat in the eighth game securing a second break after some typical Murray scrambling that seen Djokovic eventually net an attempted smash. Murray was now serving for the match and the pressure started to toll, he played his first poor service game of the day that included two double faults and missed four match points before Djokovic broke back. On one of those match points though, a drop shot from Djokovic hit the net only to drop on Murray’s serve – the Scot missing out on victory by centimeters.

It should have been a shattering blow for the Briton at that point the bookmakers odds would have swung in favour of Djokovic, with his spirit crushed few would be surprised if Murray had went on to lose at this point. As confidence flowed through Djokovic, Murray held his nerve and managed to force a second tie-break.

The tiebreak was as close as the whole match and the score stood at 4-4, the next point saw the Scot win an epic rally with an outstanding backhand winner. He then earned two match points after Djokovic double faulted – Murray needed both those points to win and on his sixth match point Murray secured a landmark win with a thumping volley.

The talk now will be is the big 3 now the big 4. At this very moment Andy Murray is comfortably in the top 2 players in the world. In the last two months Murray has only been beaten by one man, Rafael Nadal. Andy Murray has not suffered a loss to anyone other than the soon to be number 1 since the French Open and is now the only player other Rafael Nadal to win a main event since the Rome masters on the 5th of May.

It’s huge because to win these tournaments is tough nowadays, ‘ve played five days in these conditions and had eight or nine matches in the last couple of weeks. But I’ve put in the physical work and it’s paid off. I got very nervous and he was hitting the ball really big but I hung in well, It was tough for both of us and there were a lot of long rallies. Your legs really burn out there and they were some of the hardest conditions of the year. But I stayed calm throughout and didn’t waste any energy – especially when I went behind in a couple of matches. In the past maybe I’d have let that get to me but now I’m playing top players on a regular basis and I’m better equipped.